The gain past which nothing greater can be wanted, and the steadiness it gives.
We keep moving from one happiness toward a better-looking one, never quite arriving. This verse names the single gain after which there is no further "more" to chase, and tells you its mark: even heavy pain cannot shake the one who rests in it.
Having gained it, one finds no other gain greater. Established in it, one is not shaken even by heavy sorrow.
Having described the yogi who has come to rest with the mind stilled, Krishna now defines that state by its fruit: the gain that ends all seeking, and a steadiness that holds even under the worst suffering.
Where they agreethe convergence
Across schools and centuries the commentators come to the same ground. These are the points they share, and the voices that hold each one.
This is the gain that ends all seeking; once it is reached, no further acquisition seems greater, and the restless search for anything more simply stops.
Across Advaita, Bhakti, Śuddhādvaita, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · Dhanapati · Śrīdhara · Puruṣottama · Sivananda · Tilak · Ramsukhdas · JñāneśvarIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 7 others’ words
This verse names the gain that ends all seeking. Krishna says: having gained 'which', the yogi thinks no other gain greater than it. The commentators identify that 'which' as the gain of the Self, the happiness (sukha) that belongs to one's own true nature. The point is decisive: once this is reached, the restless search for any further acquisition simply stops. There is nothing left to want because nothing higher exists to be wanted.
The seeking stops because this happiness is unsurpassable; the mind only moves from one good toward a better one while a better one can still be seen, and here none can.
Across Advaita, Bhakti, Śuddhādvaita, and the modern voicesMadhusūdana · Śrīdhara · Puruṣottama · Ramsukhdas · SivanandaIn Madhusūdana, Śrīdhara, and 3 others’ words
Why does the seeking stop? Because this happiness is, in the commentators' word, niratishaya: surpassing all, unsurpassable. The mind moves from one good to a better good only as long as a better one can be seen. Here the very limit of happiness has been reached, so there is no 'more' to drift toward. Several commentators frame the realized one's settled thought as 'what was to be done is done, what was to be attained is attained'; he counts no other gain as greater because, by its own nature, none is.
And here is the harder test: settled in this state, you are not dislodged even by the severest pain, the wound of a weapon or the body fallen into fire; if the worst cannot move you, nothing lesser can.
Across Advaita, Bhakti, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · Sivananda · Tilak · JñāneśvarIn Śaṅkara, Ānandagiri, and 6 others’ words
The verse then gives the second, harder test. Established in this state, the yogi is not shaken even by heavy, severe pain (duhkha). The commentators take the example concretely: the great pain marked by the fall of a weapon, the wound of a cut, even the body falling into fire. The reasoning is that if even such extreme suffering cannot move him, then lesser disturbances certainly cannot. Stability proven against the worst is stability against all.
So the state is known on both sides at once: it keeps off the heavy pain you would not have, and it secures and holds the supreme happiness you would, and for this it earns the name yoga.
Across Bhakti, Śuddhādvaita, AdvaitaŚrīdhara · Vallabha · Ānandagiri · MadhusūdanaIn Śrīdhara, Vallabha, and 2 others’ words
Read together, the two halves define the yoga-state by its fruit on both sides at once. On one side it wards off the unwanted: heavy pain cannot dislodge it. On the other side it secures the wanted: the supreme happiness is gained and held. Some commentators note that this two-sided mapping is exactly why the state earns the name yoga, and contrast the firmly established yogi with the unripe practitioner who is still easily knocked off his seat.
This is the shared ground; it can be carried as it is. Below is where they differ.
Where they differthe divergence
Advaita Vedānta, in their fuller words
The gain is the Self itself, and stability rests on identity with the painless, sorrowless Brahman. The realized one stands in the 'truth of the Self' and is unmoved because, having become mindless and identified with Brahman which is by nature free of delusion and sorrow, there is no longer a separate self for pain to land on. Pain and sorrow can be felt only when one identifies with body and mind; where the mind is withdrawn, there is no pain. One source illustrates this with chloroform: a hand can be amputated without pain when the mind is withdrawn from the body, so too the one merged in the all-full, self-contained Self feels no blow.
Viśiṣṭādvaita, in their fuller words
The 'which' that is gained is the discipline (yoga) itself, not an identity with Brahman. Even when the practitioner is at rest from the practice, he keeps craving that very discipline and counts no other gain higher; and even while not actively in it, he is not made to waver. The heavy pain is given a deeply human face: even such a loss as the death of a worthy son does not shake him. The accent falls on the practitioner's abiding longing for and steadiness in the discipline as a relational good, rather than on dissolution into an identity-less Self.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
This school is concerned to block a reading it regards as false: that the yogi's steadiness comes from being identical 'in reality' with Brahman. It explicitly sets aside the gloss 'because of identity in reality, namely because of being Brahman' as contrary to the means of valid knowledge. The unwavering state is to be explained without collapsing the soul into Brahman; the difference between the self and the supreme is preserved even at the height of yoga.
Śuddhādvaita, in their fuller words
Here the gain is sukha, and the focus is on a puzzle of naming: how can a state called 'yoga' (joining) be the very state of 'viyoga', dis-joining, from sorrow? The answer is that yoga is named here by a reversal-mark: the separation-from-sorrow is itself the 'joining' to be entered. One source adds a careful note on the quality of the stillness: it is not stoic numbness but the natural rest of one whose taste has found its summit and so has nothing left to drift toward, unshaken even by separation rooted in the body, which is only an outer base.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
The gain is the sukha of the atman, surpassing all, and the unwavering character of the standing is grounded in that fullness. One source maps the yoga-state by both its fruits, the warding off of the unwanted and the gain of the wanted, as the very definition of yoga. Another renders the immovability in vivid terms: though mountains of misery bigger than Meru crash down, though the body be cleaved with a weapon or fall into fire, the mind reposing in the supreme bliss of the Self does not even turn to look at the body, having forgotten its pains and pleasures in the unique Self-bliss.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
One source unfolds the verse as a ladder of happiness a person climbs and is disturbed at each rung: from the tamasic sukha of sleep, sloth, and heedlessness, up to sense-pleasure, up to sattvic happiness, the mind is always disturbed toward whatever looks greater. Only when the atyantika sukha, the absolute happiness, is gained is the seeker no longer disturbed, because beyond it no further happiness or gain exists; the very limit of happiness has been reached, so the dhyana-yogi who has it cannot be drawn away. The accent here is psychological and non-sectarian: the mechanism of lobha (greed for a perceived greater good) is what is finally cured.
A few questions to carry
These ask for understanding, not recall; each answer is settled by the commentary itself.
For a second sitting
Carry this with youwhat stays
Notice how the restless mind actually works. From whatever happiness you already hold, the moment a greater-looking happiness appears, greed for it pulls you off your seat. You leave sleep and ease for the pleasure of the senses; you leave sense-pleasure for a finer, calmer happiness; and even that you would leave the instant something better seemed available. The disturbance is never really about the thing; it is about the perception of a 'more' still out there. This verse points to the one happiness past which there is no 'more' to chase: when that is reached, the very engine of restlessness has nothing left to feed on, and the mind, for the first time, simply stays.
Watch how the mind leaves each happiness the moment a greater one appears; rest instead in the one past which there is no more to chase, and for the first time it will simply stay.
Read deeper
Everything a full study holds, folded below.
Word by word
All the commentary, woven together
The commentary, woven together
machine-assisted draft, pending review
Convergence
his verse names the gain that ends all seeking. Krishna says: having gained 'which', the yogi thinks no other gain greater than it. The commentators identify that 'which' as the gain of the Self, the happiness (sukha) that belongs to one's own true nature. The point is decisive: once this is reached, the restless search for any further acquisition simply stops. There is nothing left to want because nothing higher exists to be wanted.
Braided from 9 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrī Puruṣottama · Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas · Sant Jñāneśvar
Why does the seeking stop? Because this happiness is, in the commentators' word, niratishaya: surpassing all, unsurpassable. The mind moves from one good to a better good only as long as a better one can be seen. Here the very limit of happiness has been reached, so there is no 'more' to drift toward. Several commentators frame the realized one's settled thought as 'what was to be done is done, what was to be attained is attained'; he counts no other gain as greater because, by its own nature, none is.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrī Puruṣottama · Swami Ramsukhdas · Swami Sivananda
The verse then gives the second, harder test. Established in this state, the yogi is not shaken even by heavy, severe pain (duhkha). The commentators take the example concretely: the great pain marked by the fall of a weapon, the wound of a cut, even the body falling into fire. The reasoning is that if even such extreme suffering cannot move him, then lesser disturbances certainly cannot. Stability proven against the worst is stability against all.
Braided from 8 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Sant Jñāneśvar
Read together, the two halves define the yoga-state by its fruit on both sides at once. On one side it wards off the unwanted: heavy pain cannot dislodge it. On the other side it secures the wanted: the supreme happiness is gained and held. Some commentators note that this two-sided mapping is exactly why the state earns the name yoga, and contrast the firmly established yogi with the unripe practitioner who is still easily knocked off his seat.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
The gain is the Self itself, and stability rests on identity with the painless, sorrowless Brahman. The realized one stands in the 'truth of the Self' and is unmoved because, having become mindless and identified with Brahman which is by nature free of delusion and sorrow, there is no longer a separate self for pain to land on. Pain and sorrow can be felt only when one identifies with body and mind; where the mind is withdrawn, there is no pain. One source illustrates this with chloroform: a hand can be amputated without pain when the mind is withdrawn from the body, so too the one merged in the all-full, self-contained Self feels no blow.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Swami Sivananda
Viśiṣṭādvaita
The 'which' that is gained is the discipline (yoga) itself, not an identity with Brahman. Even when the practitioner is at rest from the practice, he keeps craving that very discipline and counts no other gain higher; and even while not actively in it, he is not made to waver. The heavy pain is given a deeply human face: even such a loss as the death of a worthy son does not shake him. The accent falls on the practitioner's abiding longing for and steadiness in the discipline as a relational good, rather than on dissolution into an identity-less Self.
Rāmānujācārya
Dvaita
This school is concerned to block a reading it regards as false: that the yogi's steadiness comes from being identical 'in reality' with Brahman. It explicitly sets aside the gloss 'because of identity in reality, namely because of being Brahman' as contrary to the means of valid knowledge. The unwavering state is to be explained without collapsing the soul into Brahman; the difference between the self and the supreme is preserved even at the height of yoga.
Śrī Jayatīrtha
Śuddhādvaita
Here the gain is sukha, and the focus is on a puzzle of naming: how can a state called 'yoga' (joining) be the very state of 'viyoga', dis-joining, from sorrow? The answer is that yoga is named here by a reversal-mark: the separation-from-sorrow is itself the 'joining' to be entered. One source adds a careful note on the quality of the stillness: it is not stoic numbness but the natural rest of one whose taste has found its summit and so has nothing left to drift toward, unshaken even by separation rooted in the body, which is only an outer base.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Bhakti
The gain is the sukha of the atman, surpassing all, and the unwavering character of the standing is grounded in that fullness. One source maps the yoga-state by both its fruits, the warding off of the unwanted and the gain of the wanted, as the very definition of yoga. Another renders the immovability in vivid terms: though mountains of misery bigger than Meru crash down, though the body be cleaved with a weapon or fall into fire, the mind reposing in the supreme bliss of the Self does not even turn to look at the body, having forgotten its pains and pleasures in the unique Self-bliss.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Sant Jñāneśvar
Modern
One source unfolds the verse as a ladder of happiness a person climbs and is disturbed at each rung: from the tamasic sukha of sleep, sloth, and heedlessness, up to sense-pleasure, up to sattvic happiness, the mind is always disturbed toward whatever looks greater. Only when the atyantika sukha, the absolute happiness, is gained is the seeker no longer disturbed, because beyond it no further happiness or gain exists; the very limit of happiness has been reached, so the dhyana-yogi who has it cannot be drawn away. The accent here is psychological and non-sectarian: the mechanism of lobha (greed for a perceived greater good) is what is finally cured.
Swami Ramsukhdas · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Sivananda
A Seeker Asks
Does this verse promise that the realized one literally feels no physical pain, or that pain simply loses its power to unsettle the mind?
The verse does not say pain disappears; it says the one established in this state is not shaken by it, even by heavy pain such as the fall of a weapon. The stability is the claim, not the absence of sensation.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Lokmanya Tilak
Several commentators do press toward a stronger reading: that when the mind is wholly merged in the Self, attention no longer goes to the body at all, so the blow is not registered as the suffering it would otherwise be. One offers the image of chloroform, where a hand can be amputated without pain because the mind is withdrawn from the body; another says the mind reposing in supreme bliss does not even turn to look at the body that is cut or burned. On this line the immovability is so complete that the felt force of pain itself falls away.
Swami Sivananda · Sant Jñāneśvar
Either way the practical teaching is the same and is what the verse actually asserts: pain loses its power to dislodge the settled happiness of the Self. Whether sensation is dimmed or simply rendered powerless to move the mind, the test of the state is that the worst suffering cannot drag the yogi out of it, and if the worst cannot, nothing lesser can.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrī Puruṣottama
Contemplation
Notice how the restless mind actually works. From whatever happiness you already hold, the moment a greater-looking happiness appears, greed for it pulls you off your seat. You leave sleep and ease for the pleasure of the senses; you leave sense-pleasure for a finer, calmer happiness; and even that you would leave the instant something better seemed available. The disturbance is never really about the thing; it is about the perception of a 'more' still out there. This verse points to the one happiness past which there is no 'more' to chase: when that is reached, the very engine of restlessness has nothing left to feed on, and the mind, for the first time, simply stays.
Sit with this · Swami Ramsukhdas
All the translations and commentary
Pull up a chair.
You have come to sit with this verse. When you are ready to hear the translators and the commentators in full, tap a name in The seating.